Upcoming Plein Air January 2020

What:   Plein Air
Where: St. Augustine, FL
When:  January 4, 2020, 9 AM to 1 PM

We celebrate our 8th anniversary in January and have an exciting adventure for our first plein air event of the year. For the first time we will be having a plein air event at a private home.

Please see your email for details about the event and the location. Since it's a private home I don't want to post all the address details here.

However I can say that it's a beautiful Victorian home in St. Augustine (built in 1898) and the grounds have lovely gardens, statuary, and beautiful scenery.

Feel free to bring a lunch to share, or even consider going out to eat for lunch somewhere afterwards. We always enjoy having a show and tell of our artwork at the end of the morning also.

Let's all hope now for lovely weather. My current St. Augustine forecast shows a high of 68 with rain showers in the morning, but we all know how forecasts can change between now and then!

Happy Holidays 2019

(photo courtesy of Kathleen Trued)

I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season, and before we know it it will be 2020.  We began our official FCPS journey in January 2012 and it's been an amazing 8 years.

Earlier this month we had our usual FCPS holiday party which got off to a rocky start as no one showed up from the Cultural Center to unlock the doors! Fortunately the weather was pretty mild so while we tried to track someone down we had our annual painting gift exchange in the courtyard.

We were even about to set up the food in the courtyard when we finally reached someone from the Cultural Center who was able to come over and let us in.

 (photo courtesy of Kathleen Trued)

There was some scrambling to get set up but then the holiday brunch was excellent as usual.

                                                                     (photo courtesy of Kathleen Trued)

This was followed by a fun game of Pictionary.

                                                                    (photo courtesy of Kathleen Trued)

Great fun for those able to attend, though there were some who couldn't make it that we missed as well.  The new year is also upon so so looking forward to more adventures in the new year.

Social Media

President Carron Wedlund welcomed us on Saturday to our November meeting. She reminded us all to go see our current show if we can, and let us know about upcoming events like out holiday party coming up in December, where everyone is to bring a wrapped 5x7 painting (any medium) for our annual gift exchange.

We had about 25 attendees at the meeting including a few guests who showed up just to hear our presentation for the morning.

The St. Johns Country Cultural Council arranged to have local St. Augustine photographer Jackie Hird come to talk to us about social media, and getting your work out there.

Jackie gave us a lot to think about, and also promised to share with us the PowerPoint presentation she gave, so we all look forward to seeing that.

November meeting

What:   General meeting
When:  Saturday, November 2, 10 AM to 12 noon
Where: Cultural Center at Ponte Vedra Beach

This Saturday we welcome Jackie Hird from the St. Johns Cultural Council, with another interesting presentation from the Council.

Her topic will be:

How to Sell your Artwork Online  

This will touch on different social media, pros and cons of each, costs, etc.

Social media can be an absolute minefield difficult to navigate and I'm sure we all have interest in this topic and probably lots of questions! So write down your questions now so you can be prepared to look for some answers on Satuday.

Donna's workshop

(photo courtesy of Kathleen Trued)

This past weekend we were lucky to have Donna Grasso present a one-day workshop for us at the North Shores Community Center in Vilano Beach.

(photo courtesy of Kathleen Trued)

Donna is an amazing local artist who works in various mediums including pastel.  Her topics were the importance of composition, and drawing from life.

(photo courtesy of Kathleen Trued)

The North Shores Community Center is quite a nice venue with beautiful light and a good kitchen.

(photo courtesy of Kathleen Trued)

We had a good turnout of artists and I hope that everyone enjoyed their day.

(photo courtesy of Kathleen Trued)

The afternoon session saw everyone working from life on a still life, and I hope all got to put into practice the lessons and tips from the morning.

(photo courtesy of Kathleen Trued)

FSCJ Show

Our show at the Florida State College of Jacksonville, at the Deerwood Campus is a beautiful display of our skills and talents. The staff at FSCJ did a wonderful job of displaying our work in this great well-lit venue. However, sorry to say, the opening reception was not well attended, possibly due to the stormy weather. 
The winner of the People's Choice Award was Betsey Hogan for 'Ocher Field'.  Wonderful news --There was one sale during the reception. That was 'Forest Floor' by Richard Lundgren. Congratulations Betsey and Richard! 
I hope you all get a chance to view the show before it closes on December 9.

People's Choice, Ocher Field by Betsey Hogan